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PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



Obsequies at Elizabethtown, New York, 

September 2Gth, 1881. . 




ELIZABETHTOWN, N. Y. 
POST & GAZETTE PRINT. 

1881. 






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OBSEQUIES. 

OF 

PEESIDENT GAllFIELD 

AT 

Klizabcthtowii, N. Y., September 2r», ISSl. 



Pursuant to previous notice the inhabitants of Ehz- 
abcthtowu and vicinity met at the Court House, to take 
part in the services of the day on occasion of the burial 
of PRESIDENT GARFIELD. The Court House was 
filled to overflowing. 

Hon. Richard LocKnART Hand, President of the vil- 
lage, called the meeting to order with the following open- 
ing remarks : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — On this most beautiful after- 
noon of the declining Summer, when the death, within onr 
midst, of one who has so long been a revered and beloved 
pastor,* adds new pathos to the solemnities of the hour, the 
duty is assigned to mo of calling this meeting to order and 
explaining briefly the occasion of assembling ourselves to- 
gether. 

But how little need is thereof any explanation. How un- 
necessary to say, to this assembl}', among whom I recognize 
faces that have confronted death witliout a tremor, now 
blanched with emotion, and eyes tliat have shone but with 
a clearer, steadier light amid the crash and peril of the bat- 
tle field, now seeing these emblems of our mourning dimly 
through the mist of tears ; at this solemn moment, while 
the world is holding its breath to catch a faint echo of the 



*Tho allusion here, ami afterwards, mado is to tho Rev. Oeoboe W. 
Barrows, for is years Pastor of tho 1st Concrt-cational Church In Eliz- 
abotlitown, who diod on the moruiuK of tho •2C<th September. 



earth that falls upon the coffin of our murdered President 
— how unnecessary is it to say that w© are met to give ex- 
pression to our inexpressible grief — our horror of the 
crime, since now, for the second time within the memory 
almost of children, a president of the United States has 
been assassinated ; — our bitter shame that among all the 
sons of the Republic, there could have been found one, even 
one, so base, so traitorous, so devilish as to be capable of this 
foul deed. 

Too well we know that, in this sad hour, while we are 
gathered here, the poor, wounded, wasted, mortal part of 
him, whom living the whole world had learned to love ; 
whom dead, the whole world mourns, is to be consigned to 
its last resting place, in that beautiful God's acre at Cleve- 
land. Ah, sweet must be the sleep of him, upon whose 
grave shall rest the tenderest regard of all civiHzed peoples, 
poured out in ceaseless benediction, as softly and as lavish- 
ly as is the gentle warmth of God's own sunshine. 

Since this meeting was called, proclamations have appear- 
ed, by President Arthur and Governor Cornell, calling upon 
the people to meet at this time, "to render their tribute of 
sorrowful submission to the Will of Almighty God and of 
reverence and love for the memory and character of our 
late Chief Magistrate," and to unite in prayer "for the com- 
fort and support of the afflicted relatives ; for the peace 
and welfare of our country, and also for the preservation 
and guidance of the newly installed President." 

The meeting, therefore, which was the spontaneous im- 
pulse of our citizens, has now the added sanction of official 
appointment. 

But none the less do we gather under the prompting of a 
common sorrow, to share with each other our grief. And 
while we meet, let no thought of the bearing of this awful 
event upon human hopes and plans be preseqt to our minds ; 
let every trace of partisan feeling be far distant from us ; 
let the spirit of faction be humbled to the dust, while every 
heart but feels the great, the common loss. If the dead 
had faults — and he was human — let tbem be buried in his 
grave. His many virtues we may gladly recount and dwell 
upon ; and his patient suffering and cruel end shall conse- 
crate him in our memories, while time shall last. 

I do not attempt any eulogy of the dead, but the career 
of JAMES A. GARFIELD was one of deep, indeed, roman- 
tic interest. Born to poverty and adversity, an adversity 
so complete and bitter that he is said, I suppose truly, to 






have occupied, at one period of his early life, that lowest 
possible plane of social txistonce, the position of a canal 
driver, there was tliat witliin him which lifted him above 
every obstacle, crowned him with manhood, culture and 
honor, until 

"Through camp ami oonit be bore 
The trophies ot a conqueror ;" 

and was, by the unquestioned choice of this people, placed 
upon the very summit of human achievement — the Presi- 
dency of the United States. 

The story of his life may aptly be expressed in the proud 
old motto : '' I*er As^icra ail Astra ;" Through difficulties 
to the stars. 

I'er Aspera ad Astra. With what a deeper, nobler mean 
ing are these words fraught, when our thoughts turn to 
the last months of his eavthly experience — to those weary 
days and nii.'-hts of suffering, when the pra3'ers of millions 
wrestled with the Angel of Death, crying in agony : " Wo 
will not let tliee go, till thou dost promise to spare him;" 
while his calm, his courage, liis heroic endurance, his con- 
sideration for others taught us that his manhood was the 
genuine manhood. Christlike in its self denial, its patience, 
its gentleness. 

In such an hour as this, it is idle to speculate upon the 
meaning of so great a calamity. We can only stand aghaet 
and exclaim : " Oh Lord, why hast Thou permitted this 
thing? " But in the very depth of our grief, there comes 
one consolation to our hearts, that in all his sufferings — • 
during the weary days of his pain and illness, he was soothed 
and cheered by the consciousness that on him were centered 
the love and sympathy of every man, woman and child in 
this broad land — your sympathy and mine -your love and 
mine. 

Citizen, Soldier, Statesman, Patriot ; embalmed in our af 
fections through suffering ; canouized by martyrdom ; thy 
honor shall remain while the republic lives ; thy untime- 
ly end shall be deplored while civi.ization endures. 

But you are impatient to listen to those, who, from bet- 
ter knowh^lge of his virtues and better ability to express 
what we all feel, will give that utterance to our emotions 
which my tongue is unequal to. 

It only remains for me, then, to announce, that a brief 
and simple religious service is proposed ; after which gen- 
tlemen present, abundantly qualitied to do so, will address 
you. 



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At the close of Mr. Hand's remarks and on his motion 
Hon. Byron Pond was appointed Cli airman, and on tak- 
ing the chair addressed the audience as follows : 

My Friends: — My own inclination would lead me to re- 
main a quiet listener upon this occasion, but in a time like 
this of universal suffering and grief I may not wholly decline 
the duty assigned me. 

Again are we called upon to participate in the ceremonies 
and services of a funeral affecting our entire country. Again 
has our nation been thrown into tlie shades of mourning 
by the work of an assassin. GARFIELD, our beloved 
President, is dead. The fatal result which for many weeks 
all have feared, but which all so earnestly prayed might be 
averted, has occurred, and it only remains for the living to 
consign the dead to mother earth and to treasure up and 
bear in remembrance the good deeds and virtues of the 
departed, to the end that the world may be the better for 
his having lived. 

The whole civilized world is in sympathizing unison with 
us, as shown by countless tender messages from all quar- . 
ters. Human impulse would prompt us to a hearty judg- 
ment upon the guilty author of the great crime we deplore, 
but it seems unfit that we should here dwell upon the sub- 
ject, and rather that the constituted authorities or tribunals 
of the land should be left free scope, unaffected by popular 
expressions. No other course is safe. Vengeance is not 
ours. 

Feeling and knowing my utter inability to properly deal 
with the subject, I leave to others present more competent, 
the duty and pleasure of speaking, in fitting terms, as to 
the life, the character, the sufferings and death of the illus 
trious dead. 

On motion of Mr. Hand, Augustus C. Hand Living- 
ston and Robert Hale Kellogg, Esqr's, were appointed 
Secretaries. 

On the request of the Chairman the Reverend Erskine 
L. Arnold led the audience in the following prayer : 

O Lord, our Heivenly Father, Tbou who ^' hast been our 
dwelling place in all generations" even '■ before the moun- 
tains were brought forth," we look to Thee for comfort and 
consolation to day. For we are in the midst of deep sor- 
rovvs as individuals and as a nation. There are some in 



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our immediate midst whose hearts are bleeding from the 
wounds that the an<jcl of death hath so recently made. We 
pray thy blossinp^ upon her, whom death hath robbed of a 
lovinf^ husband, an(i tlio olinroh that has been deprived of 
the ministrnfiovis of a faiflifiil pastor. Bless and comfort 
them, and tliis entire coininunily, in this ^reat bereavement, 
and sanctify this dispensation of thy providence to the good 
of ns all. 

Blessour countrj* O, Lord, as she sits in monrning to-day, 
and may we come out from under the dark cloud, of afflic- 
tions a wiser, happier and better people than we have ever 
been before. 

Bless, O Lord, the newly installed President of these 
United States ; may he be a man of God, ruling in the fear 
of God, ruling not to satisfy the caprices of a few, but 
ruling for the good of the whole people. 

We pray Thy blessing upon all in authority, from our 
Chief Magistrate down througli all of the grades of office in 
the State and Nation. Help us to be watchful and prayer- 
ful, and help us to be in subjection to those iu authority 
over us and "to speak evil of no man." 

Again, O Lord, we pray Thee bless our mourning nation, 
comfort her in this hour of sore affliction. Be pleased to 
come very near to the grief stricken family of our deceased 
President. Bless that widowed mother who has stood so 
heroically' and patiently by our fallen Chieftain during the 
long weeks of pain and suffering ; comfort and keep her 
now, may she find that Thy grace is sufficient for her. 

Care for the cliildren O Lord. Thou who hast promised 
to be a father to the fatherless, bless and keep these prec- 
ious children, and may they grow up to emulate the illustri- 
ous example the father hath left them. Comfort them all 
in the lonely hours that will follow this sad event. JBless 
the aged mother of the deceased President and keep her in 
her declining years. Forgive us of all our individual and 
national sins, and helo us to live holier and more devoted 
lives to Thee in the future. And unto Thee will we give 
all praise in Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen. 

Mr. Arnold then read as the Scripture Lessons?, the 
90th Psalm ; 2 Coriuthiaus, 5: 1-4 ; 1 Thess. 4: 13-18. 



On the invitation of the Chair, Hon. Robekt Saffoiid 

Hale addressed the meeting as follows : 

To day, and at this very hour at that beautiful city on 
the shore of one of our great inland seas, they commit to 
the earth — dust to dust — the body of our beloved and mur- 
dered President. 

A vast and solemn multitude, doubtless in numbers sur- 
passing all precedent on a like occasion on this continent, 
is there gathered to attest their love, their honor and their 
reverence for the great and noble soul which has passed 
away. Amid all the solemn pageantry befitting the occa- 
sion, the hearts of that great crowd throb as the heart of 
one man, with grief and sympathy and love. 

And not only at Cleveland, but all over this wide land, in 
its great cities, its villages, its hamlets even, and in its 
secluded and humble homesteads and farm houses, the 
mourning of a nation to-day finds its fitting expression. 

in this our little quiet village, sheltered in this lovely val- 
ley by the grand old mountains about us, we meet to add 
our humble but heartfelt tribute to this universal voice of 
the grief of a great people, though it be but as the addition 
of a grain of sand to the endless ocean beaches. 

In the brief remarks I have to make, I shall confine my- 
self to a large extent to personal reminiscences. And if 
the good taste or propriety of those references should be 
questioned by any, I can only say that speaking as I do to 
my friends and neighbors, mainly strangers to the person 
of our lamented President, but who during his long and 
patient and heroic endurance of wasting pain, have come 
to know and love and honor him with a feeling of personal 
affection, these personal recollections, Hnking him as they 
do to others whom we have known and loved and honored, 
cannot fail in my jndg/nent to be of greater interest than 
anything else 1 could say. 

A little more than sixteen years ago, on the 20Lh April 
18G5, we met in this village on an occasion strikingly similar 
to the present, to do honor to the memory of another loved 
and imirtlered President, x\braham Lincoln. 

Miiny of us here to-day vividly recall the scenes of that 
day. The religious services were conducted by our beloved 
pastor, the Reverend GeorCxE W. Barrows, wlio this very day 
in this village has been called to his reward, his body lying 
unburied in his own house as we are gathered here to day. 
Another who took part in the proceedings of that day. 



Judge Han^, passed away full of j'ears and honors bat three 
years ago. 

There was still another, an intimate personal friend of 
President Lincoln, tied to him by close personal frien(iship 
of many years, whose remarks on that occasion can hardly 
pass from the memories of those who heard them. Orlando 
Kellogo, with that native eloquence and pathos in which 
few men were his equal, uttered with broken voice and 
trembling lips his words of accurate appreciation and eulogy 
of the President, warmed and inspired by his personal love 
and profound respect for the man. Many were the stream- 
ing eyes in tliat audience as Mr. Kellogg spoke, and the 
speaker himself, at times, broken down by his emotions and 
the thoughts that crowded upon him, was compelled to pause 
and recover himself, even as ''Father Dalton," in Whittier's 
exquisite poem, 

"Sobbed tbrougb his prayer and wept iu turu." 

Only four months later we followed that great hearted 
speaker to his grave, cut oft' in the very vigor of his life and 
the midst of his usefulness. 

In December 1865, I first made the acquaintance of GEN. 
GARFIELD at Washington, he then being a member of the 
House of Representatives. 

On the 20th of that month, it fell to my lot as the succes- 
sor of Mr. Kellogg in Congress, to announce his death on 
the door of the House, and that occasion is the one of my 
first distinct and clear recalling of GEN. GARFIELD, 
though I had certainly made his acquaintance before that. 

I shall never forget how at the conclusion of the addresses 
GEN. Garfield came to me, and with what cordial 
earnestness he tbanked me for my tribute to the memory 
of Mr. Kellogg, at the same time expressing in fit words 
his own appreciation of Mr. Kellogg's character, and the 
love and esteem he bore him. 

This was substantially tlie beginning of our acquaint- 
ance, so that the memory of Orlando Kellogg, and the loye 
we in common bore him, formed the first connecting link 
between him whom we to day mourn and myself. 

From that time on till April 18GG, I knew GEN. 
GARFIELD as a hearty, genial, true man ; a laborious and 
useful member of the House, of large and ready resources, 
actively interested in every question of importance before 
Congress, and taking a free part in the discussions of that 
body. But I had yet to learn his great gifts as an orator, 



his exquisite poetical taste, bis deep feeling, and in short 
his genuine manhood and greatness of soul. 

On the 14th April 18G6, the first anniversary of the assas- 
sination of President Lincoln, immediately after the open- 
ing services of the session, GEN. GARFIELD took the 
floor and moved that the house adjourn in honor of the 
memory of ,Mr. Lincoln. 

The brief remarks he made, not exceeding some ten min- 
utes in all, were so full of genuine feeUng and eloquence, 
and contained so much that is to clay applicable to his own 
case, that I trust I may be pardoned for making some brief 
extracts from them. Among other things he said : 

"The last five year- have been markeil by wonderful developments 
of individual character. Thousands of our people, before unknown 
to fame, have taken their places in history, crooned with immorlal 
honors. In thousands of humble nomes are dwelling heroes and 
patriots, whose name shall never die. But greatest among all these 
great developments were the character and fame of \hp.aham Linc'I.n, 
whose loss the nation still deplor s. His character is aplly described 
in the words of Enaland's great Laureate— written thirty years ago— 
in which he traces the upward steps of some — 
Divinely gifted man, 
Wliose lite in low estate began, 
And on a simple village green ; 

Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, 
And grflsps the skirts of hippy chance, 
And breasts the blows of ciicumstunce, 

And grapples witu his evil star ; 

Who makes, bv force, his merit known, 
And lives tocluteh the golden keys ; 
To mould a mighty state's decrees. 

And shape the whisper of the throne ; 

And moving up. from high to higher. 
Becomes, on Fortune's crowning slepe, 
The pillar of a People's hope, 

The ct ntre of a World's desire." 

Then after a brief allusion to the circumstances of Mr. 
Lincoln's death, its significance and its surroundings, he 
proceeded : — 

"It remains for us, consecrated by that great event and under a 
covenant with God, to keep thit faith, to go forward in the great 
work until it shall be completed. Following the lead of that great 
man, and obeying the high behests of God, let as remember that— 

He has sounded forth a trumpet that shall never call retreat ; 

He is sifting out the hearts oi men b^foie His jn<lgment seal; 
Be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant my feet, 

For God is marching on !" 



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From that time forward for some twelve years my inti- 
macy with GEN. GARFIELD t^rew and stren<rtLened from 
year to year. The time allotted me forbids that 1 should 
go further into detail, but I may bo permitted to give this 
hasty and imperfect summing up of my estimate of his 
character. 

Genial and winning in manner to an extent which is given 
to few, there was about him a frankness and sunniness of 
nature, an inborn heartiness and cordiality, grounded (leep 
in thorough human sympathy and love of his kind, and 
controlled by an exquisite perception of fitness and pro- 
priety and tiie truest instincts of the gentleman, which 
made him in his personal relations the most popular and 
best loved man among his personal acquaintances it was 
ever my fortune to know in public life. 

His intellect was a broad one, and his culture thorough 
and well nigh universal. His career too had been one of 
very wide range -, scholar, statesman, soldier, teacher, 
preacher, law^-er ; well informed in science, literature, poli- 
tics, history, finance, political economy, few men had his 
marvellous equipment for public service. Doubtless there 
have been more accomplished scholars, greater statesmen, 
more distinguished soldiers, more profound teachers and 
preachers, more thorough lawyers, men his superior in 
attainments in science, in literature, in history, in politics, 
in the laws of finance and political-^economy, but rare indeed 
have been those who took high rank as he did in all these. 
The words which Dr. Johnson applied to Oliver Goldsmith, 
are with a slight change, more applicable to him than to 
any other public man whom I have known : — 

" Qui nullum fere dndrinn' genus non teHgit ; 
•'Nullum, quod tutigit, uon oruavit." 

Nor can I dwell upon the circumstances of his cruel 
assassination; of his long and painful and weary wasting 
away, so heroically and so patiently borne ; of the tender 
love of friends that surrounded his bedside from the time 
of his wound to the moment of his death; above all, of that 
sublime and loving devotion, that self-sacrificing and self- 
forgetting endurance and love shown by his faithful wife, 
henceforth forever to be reckoned among the best, the tru- 
est and the greatest of women. 

But high above all other high and noble traits of his 
character which I have mentioned, enlightening and vivify- 
ing and adding lustre to them all, constituting the real 



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and ultimate ground work and foundation of the man, and 
marking him as of the very highest type of humanity, was 
his thoroughly religious character, his simple and unswerv- 
ing Christian faith, which made his whole life noble and 
symmetrical, from the time when I first knew him, down to 
the moment when but a little week ago he passed "out of 
the darkness into God's marvellous light." 

Cicero, the great orator of pagan Rome, declared nigh 
two thousand years ago, that death could never come dis- 
honorable to'a brave man, untimely to one who had attained 
the highest honors of the state, or pitiable to the wise man. 
If to this he could have added that to the Christian, brave 
and wise and elevated to the highest honors, with every 
duty of life nobly performed, or at least nobly attempted, 
death could come neither dishonorable, untimely or pitiable, 
he would have well summed up the conclusion of the life 
of JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 

At tlie conclusion of Judge Hale's remarks the Rev- 
erend Sewall SylvesterCutting, D.D.jOf Brooklyn, N. 
Y., on the call of the Chair, addressed the meeting as 
follows : 

Mr. Chairman and Friends: — I hesitate to speak after 
listening to the remarks to which, with such profound and 
pathetic interest, you have been listening with me. I must, 
nevertheless, by saymg a few words, fulfill the promise I 
have made to the gentlemen having the charge of tbe arange- 
ments for this meeting And the first remark I wish to make • 
is, that a religious commemoration is in harmony with the 
character and life of our departed President. This is a re- 
ligious commemoration, not alone by the fact that the 
scriptures have been read and prayer has been offered here, 
— not alone by the fact that the proclamations of the Presi- 
dent and the Governor ciU us to religious observances,— 
but in the very sentiment which brings us together, and 
which assembles our people in city, town and hamlet over 
the whole land, to bow to the Divine Will, and to implore 
the Divine blessing. It accords with tlie character and life 
of our President that it should be so. He was a Christian 
from his youth, his piety gentle and unobtrus]ve,but always 
sincere and controlling. In referring to this subject allow 
me to read a newspaper paragraph which a ladj has placed 
in my hands. It is in these words : 






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"A class mate of the Fresident said at a Williamstown prayer meet- 
ine to-day : 'Twenty-six jears ago to-uigbt, and at this very hour, 
our class were on the top of Greylock to spend the niglit of the 4th 
of July. As we wen- about to lie down to sleep, GARFIELD took out his 
pocket Testament and said : "I am in the habit of reading a chapter 
every night at this time with mv mother. Shall I read aloud ?" All 
assented, and wlien he had read, he asked the oldest member of the 
class to pray. And there in the niglit on the mountain-top, we prayed 
with him for whom we have now assembled to pray."' 

This little incident points to a habit of life. It was his 
Christian faith which interpenetrated and determined his 
character. It ran through bis being, and formed an abso- 
lutely essential part of the whole man. It is therefore per- 
fectly in i)lace that our commemoration of him should be 
equally suffused and inspired by sentiments of religion, — 
that our people mourning his departure should surrender 
him by ceremonies of Christian faith and hope. 

And next it seems a fitting thing to say, often as it has been 
said, that in him were personified the possibilities of our Ameri- 
can life. I was in Europe at the time of his nomination 
and election to the Presidency, and in reply to inquiries 
made of me by foreigners as to what was the man on whom 
this high dignity had fallen, I took unbounded pleasure 
in reciting the story of his life, and in showing its accord 
with the genius of our institutions, and the character of our 
people. When I recited the story of GARFIELD I never 
failed to find interested listeners, but there was a wonder 
in the interest,which in this land of boundless opportunities 
for all men, we never feel. GENERAL GARFIELD was 
accustomed to say that "'it was always the unexpected which 
happened to him." It was characteristically modest in him 
so to estimate himself and his career, but I think on the 
contrary that just that was always happening to him which 
was in the natural order of things under our institutions. 
He was a thoughtful boy and hnd a mind to learning, and 
so like many other thoughtful boys born to poverty, he 
struggled through great diiTiculties in the first stages of his 
education. So, like many other young men, in instances so 
numerous that all college men know them, he worked his 
wa}-, struggling with equal difficulties, through college. By 
this time he had matured and exhibited the qualities which 
distinguished him. A member of a religious denomination 
not abounding in educated men, it was only most natural 
that he should be called back to be a teacher in the Ohio 
school in which he had been a pupil, and only most natural 
that he should be made within a year its President. Al- 



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ready he had developed powers of oratory, and he was in 
request as a lay preacher ; already the breadth of his knowl- 
edge,and the harmony of his political convictions with those 
of the remarkable population of the Western Reserve, by a 
process as naturahbrought into request his political services. 

'When the war came on, he went to the army under the 
same inspirations which sent such large numbers of educat- 
ed young men to the field, and now, as he entered on his 
great career it is seen by the study of its successive steps 
from high to higher, that it was always the natural thing 
which was happening; — that it was the recognition of Jiis quali- 
ties and powers; and achievements which lifted him; which 
from the army transferred him without his seeking to Con- 
gress; which then gave him foremost place for along series 
of years; which there elected him to the Senate, and which 
in the Chicago Convention, when nobody designated for 
nomination could be nominated, concentrated on him, as tbe 
sole ruler of that tumultuous assemblage, the unanimous 
designation for the higliest elective office in the world. 
Once given the man, there was not one step, in ail the way 
from the log house in which he was born, to tlie lofty sta- 
tion from which he fell by a murderers hand, which was 
not a natural one, under the institutions which God has 
given to ns, the American people, for our inheritance. 

And I think it is this view of his life which should make 
him forever an example for the emulation of American youth. 
It is the example of elevation by character and work, in a 
land where opportunities are free, and open alike to all. I 
think the example the m.ore an inspiration from the fact that 
he himself never lost the interest in the young, which in his 
earlier life had made him the successful teacher. I was 
honored by PRESIDENT GARFIELD with an appoint 
ment on the Board of Visitors to the Naval Academy, and 
on the graduation day the 10th of June last, three weeks 
before tlie murderer's fatal shot, heard his address to the 
graduating class of Naval Cadets. It was a most remark- 
able address. It was an address in which all the qualities 
of the man came into expression, and in which therefore his 
own nature and the experiences of his own life, lent force 
to his words. No man who was not Christian, educated 
man, educator, statesman and man of affairs, no man who 
had not known and profited by the stern discipline of life, 
could have uttered the words which came from his lips, or 
have sent them with such force to the heart. It was the 
common feeling of those who heard him, little imagining 






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tbat be was speaking bis last counsels to tbo young, that 
tbese words sbonld be an inspiration forever in the hearts 
of all the young men who listened to bira. So ought he to 
be, and so may be be forever, an inspiration and an exam- 
ple to American youth. 

1 have detained you too long, Mr. Chairman and fiiends, 
and I bave but one word more to sav. In bis infinite wis- 
dom God has denied our prayers for the PRESIDENT'S 
life, but he has answered them in another way. It is often 
his gracious method. He spared him to us through many 
weeks till the lessons of our unutterable bereavement should 
bave become impressed on our hearts. Neither our public 
men, nor our politicians, nor our people, are exactly what 
they were twelve weeks ago. We are chastened, made 
sober, and united. May God help us that we forget not 
what we bave been taught. 

Following Dr. Cutting, Hon. Francis Asbury Smth 
spoke as follows : 

Mr. Chairman : — A little more than sixteen years ago, wo 
held a meetmg like this. Then, a nations shout of triumph 
was changed to grief, by Lincolxs death ; and with trailing 
arms and muffled drums, onr armies came home from a 
hundred victories; now, in the sweet time of peace which 
their valor won, the bells toll again for the dead, one grand 
funeral procession marches across the continent, as the sun 
goes down, and henceforth, mourning must cloud the na- 
tion's proudest festival. 

After a life of struggle, Lincoln saw only from the 
mountain top, and dimly through the smoke of war, the 
land of promise; GARFIELD lived to dwell in its fields 
and taste its fruits; but Fate is impartial, and eighty c?o,ys 
of pain and heroic endurance have made Lincoln and GAR 
FIELD equally martyrs, Booth and Guiteau, equally infa- 
mous. 

It is fitting that we should mourn for one so brave, so 
great, so good ; fitting, that we should join in the univer- 
sal sympathy with the grief of a despairing mother and a 
widowed wife; fitting, above all, that by our estimate of bis 
life and character, we should learn the full measure of our 
loss, and the only consolation for the millions who mourn 
at his grave. 

I do not assume to speak his eulogy, much less to judge 
of his place in history; far abler and wiser men must do that. 






But we know many things of him, which neither time nor 
criticism can change. 

What mother ever had a truer son ? What wife, a ten- 
derer husband ? What children, a more loving father ? 
What man, a more steadfast friend ? He was a citizen 
without reproach, a Representative without stain ; as a 
politician, he lacked only those qualities which sometimes 
lift into brief notice, little men ; as a Statesman, he takes 
rank among the few who have outgrown the theories of the 
demagogue and the trimmer, and proclaimed to the world 
that widest and grandest of political truths, — that the State 
can be safely guided only by the law of equal justice — "the 
everlasting Right." 

For years a leader in the national council, he stood, in 
mental power so much above most, so much more firmly 
upon fundamental principles, that his judgment was re- 
spected by all, and on questions of great moment, was often 
endorsed alike by political adherents and opponents. 

His life and successful work, his rapid ascent from the 
narrowest influence to world-wide fame, prove the truth of 
the growing belief that success in American public life, can 
be securely based only on high intellectual endowments and 
genuine moral worth. 

That such a life and character must serve as a funeral 
theme to day, shows how great is our loss ; but when we 
consider how, and why he died, language utterly fails to 
speak our grief. His courage conquered everything but 
death; his patience and his cheerfulness through sufferings 
that no man can measure, have made the most pathetic page 
in history — a page which the world already knows by heart, 
and will not soon forget. 

But there is consolation even here. He was the pure 
flower and ripe fruit of American developement and pro- 
gress. No other land could have produced him ; no other, 
can learn so well the lesson taught by his life : where, but 
in a land where equal laws give equal rights, does the 
citizen born in poverty ana obscurity, rise to a station 
prouder and higher tlian kings can reach "? where else, do 
all noble j'-outh find in adversity itself, the strongest in- 
centive to great deeds, — in his career, such inspiration ■? 

In the chronicles of time, mere intellect counts for little; 
ambition, achievement, success, liowever great, are soon for- 
gotten, if they serve but to gild a triumph, or decorate a 
name. In this nineteenth century, at last, we begin to 
learn that the only greatness worthy of recognition and 



t^'y«t'lte'»m>^wagL»?;.' •jt »\mimmi»m li»e^ 



I 



l!istin<r roinetiibraiu'o, is tlio sorvieo of Im inanity. Alread.y, 
lialf the world lias forj^'otten Ansterlitz and Blenheim; It 
will never forfjefc Yorktown and Appomattox. 

And this is why GARFIELD is great ; this, the lesson 
liis life teaclies. No word of bis ever hinted compromise 
with injustice or oppression. From Chickamauga to the 
Presidential chair, he stood lightinrr on the side of Liberty 
and of Itight, serving himself best, by serving others most. 
Such service will perpetuate his name ; For this, pilgrims to 
the tombs of American martyrs, will uncover their heads at 
GARFIELD'S grave, on their way to Lincoln's. 

We "lirar at times a spntincl 

"Who moves about from jilace to place, 
"And whispers to tLe worlds of space 

"In the deep n-ght. that all is well. 

'•An'l all is well, though faith and form 
"lie smiderol in the night of fear : 
"Well roars the storm to tlioso that hear 

"A flte|)cr voice across the slorm, 

"Proclaiminq; socinl trnth shall spread, 
"And instice, ev'u though thrice again 
•'The red fool-fury of the Seine 

'Should pile her barricades with dead. 



"While thon. d"ar sinrit, happy .star. 
'O'er look'st the tumult from afar. 
"And smilest, knowing all is well. 

The Chair then called upon the Reverend Ashbel 
Green Vermilye, D.D. of New York, who made the fol- 
lowing remarks : 

Mil. Cii.\iRM.\N :— The historian of ancient Rome tells ns 
that, as one of its customary observances, once every year 
all business was suspended, life itself, as it were, stood still 
in the presence of death. They thus, in a way befitting its 
work, recognized it as the great destroyer of man and his 
hopes, subjecting all classes alike to tears. This day re 
minds us of that ; but that Roman festival of death never 
reached the proportions of sadness and sorrow which 

characterize the hour and the day now passing passino-, as 

one marked, peculiar and alone in its scenes, into the^'an- 
nals of history. Frotn the Atlantic to the Pacific all busi- 
ness is suspended, all life is stilled into the silence of sor 
row ; a nation, a continent, in mourning and black, bemoans 



its dead : and the raonrninp^ in tl)e land is with each and all 
as if tliey themselves had been afflicted. Across the ocean, 
aleo, how wonderful the spectacle ! The courts of England, 
Belji^ium and Spain, are wearing sympathetic mourning ; 
the World's great exchange in London is closed ; Cathedral 
bells and Parish bells, that never before tolled at the death 
of a foreigner, are proclaiming bj- their stroke England's 
fellowship of grief ; her Queen sends her own personal 
tribute of flowers for the bier ; and all the civilized World, 
we may almost say, is following that bier, with utterly un- 
usual signs of sorrow. And for whom, for whose death, is 
this great lament, and what is it that has so stirred the 
World's sympathies and condolence ? It is for a man whose 
name, si.K months ago, was scarcely known abroad — only 
known, ])erha))s, as that of our elected President ; but who, 
during eighty days of that six months, has fought his slow 
and terrible battle with death, in such a way as to enshrine 
his name in every heart, and to reveal him to the World as, 
what he was, one of its greatest and noblest — Christian, 
hero, martyr. Cicero, Sir, in some one of liis l)oolc9 says of 
some who had died heroically ui)on the battlefield, that the 
Gods had not despoiled them of life, but (/Ineii them death. 
We may say the same, as Christians, of GARFIELD that 
God has given him death. He might have lived to reveal 
himself as a statesman and President of high aims and no- 
ble endowments, and thus have conquered a place among 
the illustrious. Tljat fame the assassin's bullet snapped in 
the midst, ungrown. But after being tried — as the ancient 
Greek dialogue said the perfect man should be, even to the 
cross — tried to the utmost, in youth, manhood and especial- 
ly the closing scene, God gave him death. How the World 
hung around that closing scene, watching every bulletin, 
every flutter of the changing pulse, as with quick instinct 
and growing love for his character, it discovered what a 
grand and heroic man lay therein his suffering! Godg.ive him 
death ; and to-day the image of this man fills the World's 
heart, and has become sacred. 

It certainly tells well for our country and its institutions, 
that within the first century it has produced three such men 
as Washington, Lincoln, and GARFIELD. Washington, in- 
deed, had something about him of the old English culture, 
the culture of the colonial State, and of one born to afflu- 
ence Lincoln and GARFIELD were more direct and 
characteristic products of our institutions. We have been 



I 



! » ! s-^'&'faMay<^ ta!Mm)i»tJ^.iSJ^^ 



^s^^n^ 



accustomed hitherto to reverence our revohitionary ances- 
tors, aiul to assign to thein the pedestal of history. But 
wo now see that dcjinocracy has wrought no degeneracy 
either in the manhood or the womanhood of the hind. What 
an aft'ecting Iriiid in history will ho GAllFIELD, his noble 
wife, and the old mother — the old motlier, receiving the 
first kiss at the inauguration, first always in the pious rev- 
erence of her son — tlie noble wife, during that long strug- 
gle for life nourishing from her own brave spirit the strength 
and the courage thtit were daily draining from his wound ! 
Surely, Sir, we do right to mourn that such a man as 
GARFIELD has been taken away. As a sentiment, true 
and deep as the feeling has been, from the Queen down 
through all classes, it will pass away. But there will re- 
main this. Tlie mourning of to day is for a man of the 
right sort — a man of grand character, whose whole history 
is a lesson. The verdict and the tears of the World — not 
ours only, have assigned liiin liis place, and nothing in the 
future can change it. No W^estminster is for him, even for 
his body ; a broader resting place appropriately holds it, 
where the great lake rolls and the winds of the prairies 
blow freely — a resting place nearer and more akin to 
that broad humanity of which he was so noble a type. And 
humanity, Sir, understands the meaning of this closed 
life — the laborers of Britain, the peasants of Europe who 
cannot rise, have already committed it to heart. It is des- 
tined to be reul and to be an inspiration for generations ; 
whilst its tragic close — suddenly toppled from the lofty 
height into the whelming waters below — will ever make it 
a touching theme of history. 

The meeting then closed by prayer and benediction bj 
the Eeverend Dn. Cutting. 



BYKON POND, 

President. 



A. C, H. Livingston, 
E. H. Kellogg, 



Secretaries. 



Dm 



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